Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Voting for Harris, Says He’s ‘an American Before a Republican’

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

In a long post on social media platform X, the Republican said he hates politics and wants to tune out, but he can’t because of what former President Donald Trump has done.

“Rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets,” Schwarzenegger said. “To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America … a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious.

“And I will always be an American before I am a Republican,” he continued.

Schwarzenegger held up the idea of bipartisanship and noted that his time as governor taught him “to love policy and ignore politics.” He said that while he isn’t pleased with either party, a second Trump administration would only leave the country “angrier, more divided, and more hateful.

“A candidate who won’t respect your vote unless it is for him, a candidate who will send his followers to storm the Capitol while he watches with a Diet Coke, a candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else … a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea — that won’t solve our problems,” he said.

Schwarzenegger continued that it’s time “to close the door on this chapter of American history” and move forward as a country — and that even though he has plenty of disagreements with their platform, the only way to do that is with Harris and running mate Tim Walz.

“Vote this week,” he said. “Turn the page and put this junk behind us.”

After he posted his statement, Schwarzenegger reposted a handful of comments from people who disagreed with him, citing them as examples of respectful political discourse.

The former bodybuilder and movie star was elected governor in 2003 when voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from office, and his reelection in 2006 marked the last time a Republican won statewide office in California.

He now chairs the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, which seeks to move past the partisan divide to advance public policy, and where he said in his statement, “We fight for clean air and stripping the power from the politicians who rig the system against the people.”

KQED’s Brian Watt and Jared Servantez contributed to this report.